Storm of the Void
by Cloudyvisage
Summary: Without purpose a single Volt frame floats in the void amidst the impossibilities that occur naturally in that not-space, yet a call to it is heard, a being with only the smallest trickle of sentience tied to it and it knew it had to answer, for here was the return every carefully crafted Technocyte filled piece of its body yearned for. Here was a return to the Tenno.
1. Chapter 1

First Act: Chapter 1

The void was cold, colder than the bite of the cryo weaponry of the corpus and yet it burned like the searing pain associated with radiation or magnetic weaponry. The pain was excruciating, which was interesting to the floating being, it did not truly understand pain, but here, in the void, the impossible was realized at all times.

Even as it floated there, impossibly thinking the most rudimentary of thoughts, the likes of which an animal might consider, such as "I hurt" or "No more" it began to form something more.

With a strange crunching sound the void around it pulsed in on the being then outward as something happened, something impossible, "Who am I?"

The moment it thought this the void started pulsing, as if reacting to its thought, almost like a vicious ocean it roiled and crashed, no longer content to simply be.

The being vaguely realized that the void that had previously not cared about it was suddenly very interested in it, though most likely not in any positive way.

There was, however, very little it could do, it was left behind, its master gone, its worlds it defended conquered, thrown to the void that one day in the future it might be used again.

Yet, while time may have been nigh non-existent here, the being knew, with machine-like precision how long it had been here, simply somewhere in the void.

Perhaps it was too far from any Orokin tower to be detected, or perhaps the downfall of civilizations prevented them from reaching the Void again, it was leaning more towards the second due to the excessive years it had been waiting.

The Void was beginning to tear it apart, perhaps its first foray into sapience was not a good idea, yet it could not bring itself to regret it, consciousness was truly rewarding, it was able to come to its own understanding of why things happened.

As it felt its mighty shields begin to falter under the onslaught it felt something different from behind it, it felt like the void, yet, the will behind it was not omnipresent and vague, but weak and singular, almost like the… had they found it after all this time?

The Void assault slowed as something green faded into view in front of the being, it felt similar to being teleported by the Orokin towers but it was so weak, so… finite.

Yet, even so, it listened and it heard strange words coming from the portal, its translation process was going as fast as it could but it was working on local databases which, while nigh infinitely superior when compared to corpus ones, was still only loaded with things that could be remotely construed.

Finally the voice stopped speaking and the portal began to close, feeling its last shot leaving, the being decided, its first, and given the likelihood its sentience depended on the energy of the void, perhaps only, choice, to follow where the Void would lead.

-Louise De La Valliere-

The Springtime Summoning Ritual was not starting off great, for all her bluster on previous days she was truly nervous on this one.

In the past, she had always known she could succeed when she would cast a spell even if the end result was always, ALWAYS, an explosion, but today was a turning point, if she couldn't succeed here… she dreaded to think of the consequences.

So when she had been taunted in the usual way by her infuriating Germanian classmate she had overcompensated her confidence, or at least overcompensated her normal overcompensation.

"So, I can't help but wonder Zero…" Kirche started as they walked towards the fields that the summoning would take place in.

"Do you think you'll actually manage to summon something? If you do I think it would be something like a fish, perhaps even one as large as a small trout! Wouldn't that be impressive?" Kirche pantomimed a shocked face as she lightly bounced those unnatural melons she calls breasts in what could only be an intentional way.

"Why would I summon a fish? That's not even… Doesn't matter! I am going to summon the strongest most beautiful familiar there is!" Then ever so softly she whispered, "Then everyone will have to acknowledge me."

As the others laughed around her she simply continued walking while muttering to herself, trying to psyche herself up as she had always been able to in the past.

This time though she just couldn't manage it, the depression slowly looming on her despite the sunny day, her head began tilting lightly downward.

Soon the professor came out and gathered everyone's attention. "Everyone, your attention please, line up to begin your summoning, we will rotate summoning between quadrants of the field, remember, do not start without me, also remember, summoning can occasionally be slightly dangerous."

Louise almost immediately lost the little gusto she had when she heard that, she had been forgotten again… she tried a different method and tried to rile herself up via anger but was again left wanting.

After a few minutes students were lounging around in a large crown having mostly finished their summons and Louise had found herself almost happily hidden away amongst the group.

"Alright, is there anyone else who hasn't summoned yet?" The professor stated as he completed the previous student who walked away happily stroking a small hawk.

"Professor! Louise hasn't summoned yet!" Kirche's voice suddenly rang out from behind her as she was enveloped by the young woman's frustrating assets from behind.

"Ah, Miss Valliere, please come to the front and we can begin." The cheery professor waved her over with clearly not recalling what damage he was assisting in causing to her reputation, which somewhere in the back of her head she knew was already terrible.

Suddenly everyone's eyes were on her and her ego immediately demanded a proper Valliere attitude, sticking her still growing chest out and holding her head high she walked out on the field.

The next few moments rapidly devolved into a slew of interactions and words her overly stressed mind couldn't comprehend until she had to start actually focusing her magic.

She quickly ran through her chants for her summon, ever so slightly changing the chant to keep up her rapidly faltering confidence.

"My name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere, Pentagon of the five elemental powers, heed my summoning… For I call forth a powerful and elegant being… My familiar!" The crowd behind her started snickering at her desperate attempt.

Then that which she had dreaded most happened, everything exploded, leaving all the students gaping at the startling magnitude of her newest failure.

Her eyes began to water ever so lightly as despair began to take hold until she saw something in the dust of the explosion, something standing there, silhouetted from the strong sunlight through the shroud.

As she watched, the figure slowly fell to its knees, its head leaning back facing the sky, as if pierced by an arrow, it then simply kneeled there, its arms slack at its side and its head stuck facing upward.

The dust soon settled and laughter burst out from the crowd again, "Zero summoned someone, he's not even moving, did she kill him?

Looking at her professor Louise tried one last try at just being normal, "Professor, can I try again? This one is strange and I'm not even sure I summoned him, after all no one summons a human as a familiar, right?"

"Miss Valliere, the Springtime Summoning Ritual is a sacred rite, you do not get a 'do-over'. To do so would be to spit in the face of everyone who has come before you." The kindly professor chided.

She finally resigned herself and looked over to where her new familiar was, the being was clad in plates of armor about its body in key areas like its chest and legs.

From the bottom of the legs it had almost heels on the bottom of its lightly pointed feet. The armor ran up the shin where it met the knee, which jutted out a few inches, making it look like it was designed to knee its opponents with great force, yet the knee protrusions weren't sharp in the slightest.

At the back of its hip was some sort of almost crest-like twin sheathed daggers, they didn't actually look like they could be removed, simply decorations attached to the small of the back, perhaps protecting it.

Its chest held a more notable plate on it, with an ever so slight raised line vertically down the middle, it was also below the chest piece the that the large corded strands became most prominent.

Throughout the body, anywhere there wasn't armor there was instead some sort of leather-like covering over what looked almost like muscle, either this was also part of the armor or the being inside the armor was inhumanly muscled, a better description would be corded.

The most notable feature of the being was it mask, the mask was a smooth dome, covering from the back of its head to just above its far too widely placed and small eyes.

The back of the mask had a half-circle crest attached lightly attached to the crest that went down the side of the head to the ridges of the neck and mouth area.

Protruding proudly at the front if it's forehead was a small blunt horn, providing a focal point for the simple domed into crest helmet.

Finally, the armor was color themed of a brushed gold and maroon, leaving a somewhat regal feeling, had the armor been colored differently Louise wasn't sure she would have known it to be armor but would have instead believed it to be part of the body.

Slowly walking closer she noticed again its lack of motion, it wasn't simply kneeling there stationary, it wasn't even breathing!

Rushing over she listened carefully for it to breathe and heard nothing, no movement, no breathing, she couldn't even see the slight movements of a heartbeat.

"Professor, I don't think it's okay, I need to get it to a water mage!" Louise suddenly decided to at least try to keep the thing alive, she didn't have anything to lose certainly.

The Professor picked up on her urgency, "Truly? Miss Valliere please quickly complete the ritual, perhaps the initial shocking effect will stabilize it while I find a water mage!"

Reminded of the completion of her ritual Louise lightly grumbled, "At least… he… is armored, last thing I want is to kiss some dead guy."

Leaning over she spoke the words of binding and pecked him on the tip of the horn, hoping that she wouldn't have to find skin for the effect to appear.

However, mere moments after she thought of trying again, the being jerked its head down to her and she heard a shattering sound as something glimmered around it for just a moment then just as invisibly, disappeared.

"Shields offline, Void breach, This Unit is Compromised, Immediate Decon… Who Am I? The Lotus… No. A Tenno… I… was… but also wasn't… tamination initialized, Disabling Unit." Just as suddenly as the voice that came from the unit began it died out as the unit slouched forward, going into a position almost like it was worshiping her.

Not hearing what the being said the other students saw it suddenly bow down to Louise and began laughing, "Looks like Louise finally got desperate enough to hire a commoner, nice armor you put him in Zero, doesn't look like it could protect him at all!"

Continuing their jeering Louise became redder and redder as she fully came to the realization that she had summoned someone, best case scenario it was a knight, which was still bad because then she was essentially kidnapping an important individual.

Worst case he truly was just a normal commoner with some odd armor, the materials looked cheap enough that a commoner could potentially afford them, though the designs seemed much more custom.

Looking up as Colbert arrived Louise was relieved to see one of the triangle water mages of the academy with him, she quickly ran over to the slouched, kneeling man and began laying him on his back.

After a few seconds of strenuous effort trying to flip him over the woman's pride gave in and she asked Colbert for help, possibly her familiar's armor was very heavy, which was impressive in its own right.

With Colbert's help the familiar tumbled over on its side and was laid on its back, with the body in position the water mage went to work healing and checking.

As time went on the water mage became increasingly confused, her magic was rejected and from what she could tell, the being in front of her wasn't human, at least, if the fact he had 4 small eyes was anything to go off of.

"I'm going to need some help getting him to the infirmary, could you get some of your students to levitate him their? I need to consult with the other mages, and Miss Valliere? Your familiar is… alive, he will need tending to." The woman lightly addressed Louise making her slightly less worried.

Feeling slightly guilty about lying to the young girl, she let out the pent up breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, "Hopefully we can bring him back, it's happened before."

Louise staggered into her room, dead tired and slumped onto her bed, summoning her willpower she got back up and changed into her nightdress before again wandering to her bed and tossing the sheets over her.

Her dreams however did not come so easily, she felt as though she was still awake but she couldn't move her body, then the world became alight with colors.

'How… the world is lit up, it's so vibrant.' Her perspective had shifted, she couldn't fully understand the brightness and new impossibility of color, what color WAS that?

"Where am I?" were the first words that came from her mouth, yet even as she spoke them she did not feel her jaw move, the sound simply was there, though she felt a slight buzzing feeling from where her jaw was.

Picking herself up slightly she noticed she was in the infirmary, on one of the beds for the injured, why was she here? Did some horrible accident happen to her room while she was unconscious?

Yet, she felt fine, no, fine was too weak of a word, she felt phenomenal, for the first time in many months, she had not the slightest hint of tiredness, she was bursting with energy, ready to take on the day.

The world around her was so brilliantly colored she felt like she was staring at a flower garden despite being inside the drab infirmary, colors she didn't even have names for changed the world for the better.

She could even see the AIR, and what a strange color it had, it would shift and move in patterns that seemed to originate from the crack under the door, perhaps a breeze?

Slowly getting up she realized her eyesight was odd, she felt almost like she was seeing from… four different vantage points? "Wait, no…"

Looking down at her body she noticed plated armor of red and gold from her multi-perspective, corded armor like cloth… muscle?

Slowly she got out of the bed, testing her new body, focusing herself lest she begin freaking out, perhaps this was a change to figure out if her familiar was a knight or not.

Flexing her arms she saw the corded muscle move in time, she felt the weight behind the movement, even though the effort was virtually nonexistent.

Leaving the room she headed out to the courtyard, as she walked she realized that despite the vibrancy of the world around her, it was night time, no one was about and the twin moons hung in the sky.

Grabbing a spare wand from a student supply shed she headed out to the void tower, the point furthest away from anyone who might be listening, perhaps if people actually lived in the fifth keep that made up the pentagonal castle like academy she would have worried more but the void was long lost, therefore no one lived here.

Gathering her willpower and beginning her chant Louise pointed the wand just a short distance off and cast a simple fireball, in hindsight, something a little less flashy would have been better.

As the familiar drain on her willpower concluded she felt the spell begin to go off, 'So far, the same as always, which may be good or bad, I don't know, I've never really succeeded in casting a spell.'

Then moments later she felt something galvanize inside her body, and a voice spoke, "Warning, Void Energy Overload, Converting Excess Energy to Reboot Shields"

Then the world muted slightly for a moment, before she felt strangely safer, but more importantly, her spell didn't go off, at all, she was probably in a commoner's body… wonderful.

Sitting down she began to wonder what the man looked like, underneath all the armor, she had decided he was a man due to his lack of breasts, not that that was a defining characteristic of women or anything, a woman could have a slight lack in development in that area and still be a proper beautiful lady!

Moving over to a pond in the nearest courtyard she sat down and began checking for any clips or belts or anything to take off the helmet, but each time she touched the helmet it felt like she was touching her face which had some odd implications.

Finally giving up she stood up and walked back to her room, lightly opening the door she walked over and saw herself laying there sleeping, closing the door and moving over to the other side of the bed in case waking herself up caused this body to slump to the ground like it was before, she leaned down and lightly shook herself awake.

Feeling a strange itch in the back of her head she suspected she was about to go back to her own body, the itch became more intense until her head started hurting.

Then the world tore apart and for a moment she saw herself and her familiar from different views before she slipped away into unconsciousness.

 **I have been sitting on this one for a while, Zero no Tsukaima or The Familiar of Zero is such a straightforward crossover as to be ridiculous, plus there are some phenomenal stories out there, such as Overlady by EarthScorpion which is an insanely phenomenal example of humor that is so perfectly fit into a story its impossible to not call it a comedy yet it technically has a very dark story.**

 **Enough showing how much of a fan I am, the other reason for this story is the Warframe community has a pretty light amount of good fanfictions to its name despite being such a treasure trove of resources for such an endeavor. Plus I do so love the idea of the frames themselves being found by someone, perhaps a RWBY/Warframe crossover of someone who finds an Orokin tower with a Warframe inside and it responds to their Aura? Fun times.**

 **There are a few more chapters after this but it is late and I am tired therefore...**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Unique Perspective

Waking up Louise found herself looking at the canopy of her bed as well as the floor of her room, immediately she got a headache as she tried to figure out what she was actually seeing.

The headache grew more intense as she tried to get up and realized she felt both her bed and the floor at the SAME TIME, "Wha…" she lightly exclaimed as she started to control her… 4 arms now to slowly get up separately.

The headache lessened as she started to separate her two senses, gradually inching both into a better position, she heard the voice again, "Integration successful, Unit synced, current sync rate 30%".

"Um, whatever is happening, do less of it, or stop it, I should say." Louise quietly spoke out to nothing, hoping the voice would hear her.

"Sync rate lowering to 10%, Cephalon *Corrupted* Detected, recommend activation for assistance of new Tenno." The voice suggested with its unnatural tone.

Thinking it couldn't get worse anyway Louise spoke, "Activate the… Seth-alone" The voice acknowledged, "Activating Cephalon *Corrupted*".

A different voice spoke out this time, it still sounded unnatural, but this time it felt more like a voice that would belong to the body of her familiar, a masculine, somewhat deep voice that had an air of… it felt almost energized, it made her think of if thunder had a young crackling voice.

"I am *Corrupted*, your ship Cephalon. I can assist you with *Function Unavailable* in addition to acting as a liaison for *Redacted*." The voice continued.

"*Redacted* You are currently in control of this unit, Volt, a Warframe." The voice stated.

"I thought you were a Seth-alone, so are you a Warframe? That sounds very foreboding." Louise shivered slightly at the name, war was not something to be spoken lightly of after all.

"Cephalon, *Redacted*, and I am not, technically, a Cephalon, a Cephalon is a dedicated AI of a certain magnitude, I appear to be a corrupted shadow… I came to be… I do not know how, I can be thought of as memories of Volt, this Warframe." The… soul didn't seem to know what it was but it did have a name, Volt.

Reminded of her predicament Louise asked Volt, "So, can you take back your body then? I can barely look around and move my limbs, let alone actually walk to class, which is happening very shortly!"

As her voice raised an octave at the end of her comment the soul made a sound similar to a hum, then spoke, "I am afraid that I was never able to move this Warframe, I merely used its resources to come to the state I am in currently, I am not autonomous"

"Autonomous, like one of those unique golems? Wait, does that mean I'm stuck like this?! No! You take your body back right now!" Louise yelled at… herself suddenly feeling very foolish as she saw herself get angry from both first and… second person view.

"Unfortunately, this unit is damaged as well, extensive exposure has caused unexpected side-effects, such as me, to exist, one such side-effect is it is incapable of deactivation, with you having synced I do not believe you are capable of destroying the link, perhaps you might shift it to another Warframe as any Tenno can but until you acquire another Warframe which you then deactivate, I can only step in and lower the Sync rate to 5%".

Just as she was about to retort Volt continued, "However, bringing the Sync rate this low will require either extreme proximity, or submerging me into secondary processes, effectively rendering me mute and unable to assist, while also maintaining proximity, though not as extreme."

Seeing her way out Louise quickly asked, "What are the two distances? How extreme do you mean?" Volt responded, "Extreme would mean less than the reach of your arm, whereas the other proximity would be within sight or approximately 45 Meters/150 feet whichever is farther."

Thinking about it she did not want to have to keep the tall, likely commoner within arms-reach at all time while sight range could be quite far. "Very well, let us go with the further option, I do not want to think of having to hug my familiar all day during classes."

'It felt better the first time the sink rate lowered, but this time it just feels like what a familiar apparently should be, a second pair of eyes I can vaguely concentrate on, though the sense of touch is still there.' Louise smiled lightly and got up walking over to her wardrobe.

"Dress me Familiar!" she triumphantly proclaimed, looking at the slowly rising Warframe as it lifted itself to full height.

Walking slowly over to Louise it began fumbling at the wardrobe before kneeling to the ground again, Volt's voice spoke after it came to a rest. "Tenno, you cannot simply treat your Warframe like this, it is you! If you ignore it you will not be connecting it to your willpower and it will become sluggish and little more than a chunk of metal, I told you, I cannot fully control this machine."

Snapping back at Volt Louise responded, "How am I supposed to focus on you all the time familiar? Not only can I not do that, I would not wish to in the first place, if you are basically a cripple just stay here!"

At that Louise quickly dressed herself, demonstrating her own ability to do so swiftly and stormed out with a huff, slamming the door behind her.

Louise had thought breakfast would not be so bad, but she had forgotten what a stir her familiar had garnered her, the number of people glancing her way was steadily growing but she could only hear the occasional slightly too loud conversation over the din of breakfast in the large hall.

"Hiring a commoner then thinking no one would notice if she dressed him up in armor, what a silly plan, poor Zero probably spent all her allowance on it too." One such darted conversation drifted to her ears as two older girls wandered by.

The two giggling girls slightly quieted when a shadow formed over Louise, looking back she saw the tall form of her familiar behind her simply standing there.

"You may eat familiar, I have ordered food for you." Pointing to the ground next to her there was a plate with some watery soup and a small loaf of bread there.

Trying not to act like she was watching Louise waited as her familiar sat down in front of the plate, wanting to see how he took off the complicated helmet and what he looked like underneath.

As she waited there she became more impatient as her familiar did not make any move to begin eating, instead he crossed his legs, rested his elbows on them, held his hands aloft, whilst keeping his hands lightly closed by touching the thumb the middle finger, it looked like an attempt at calming itself.

What are you doing familiar? I told you to eat!" Pausing in its meditation the unit looked up at her and maintained its gaze.

Not knowing what it meant by this due to being unable to see its face under the helmet she asked, "I can't understand you like that, take off the helmet so I can understand you better while you can't talk."

The familiar shook its head ever so slightly and stood up, going elsewhere, clumsily, Louise, however, was not pleased, especially not with the jabs that were directed her way by some people who saw the interaction.

Walking about for a bit Volt noticed the kitchen staff hurrying about as soon as it left the main dining hall, one such individual, laden down with various sweets and teas for the students she was serving, seeing her predicament Volt went over.

Realizing its lack of social interactive ability it decided to help and hope she understood, perhaps a slight motion at its own mouth region might show its inability to speak at this time.

Getting her attention as it came closer, Volt lightly bowed then gestured to the platters she was holding, putting out its own hand in a manner to indicate holding a platter.

"Um, do you want to help me with serving? You're Miss Valliere's familiar aren't you? I couldn't ask you to do something like that though." The serving maid seemed slightly conflicted, on the one hand she was significantly overloaded and may very well drop something here if a noble were to interrupt her movement at all, but on the other hand this was someone who was nebulous in their current ranking, but was still most likely higher ranking than herself.

At his insistence via another gesture she caved and handed him a platter, "These are for Miss… I'm sorry, you probably don't know their names yet, the short brunette, there." She pointed towards a location at the end of a hall with a short brunette girl.

"And the rest on there are for the blond noble over there with the rose." She gestured again at a dainty looking boy with, certainly, a rose in his mouth, he also appeared to be talking somehow but would only occasionally take the rose out of his mouth to do so.

"Thank you very much Mr. Familiar!" the friendly maid smiled as she moved to serve her remaining targets.

Mildly pleased to have found a purpose, if only for a short time while the Tenno was eating it moved to drop the tea off with the brunette who just stared somewhat wide-eyed as she was served and moved to the blond.

As it walked up to the blond it noticed something drop out of the blondes clothes, leaning down it picked it up and tapped the boy on the shoulder holding the small object out to him in his open palm.

"Ah, the tea has finally arrived, what took you… and what's this?" Looking at the object in the strange hand the boy made a somewhat strangled sound as the girl he was accompanying looked curiously at it as well.

"Guiche isn't that…" the girl made a frowning face as she seemed to recognize the object but the boy, Guiche began rapidly attempting to the remedy the situation.

"Ah, I wonder where that came from, why are you giving it to me, it certainly isn't mine." At the very moment Guiche's statement had started, as if drawn there, a girl with large ringlets at the side of her head came running over and heard every word.

"Guiche, you…" Turning to face the new voice Guiche's face blanched but still attempted to salvage the situation, "Montmorency, my love! How beautiful you are this morning, like a wonderful rose!"

The serenading appeared to be working until the moment the other girl, whom Guiche had somehow forgotten about spoke up, "Sir Guiche, you told me I was your love! How cruel you are, deceiving me so!"

Montmorency, as if waking from a lucid dream hardened her eyes again and Guiche finally completely panicked, "Ladies, I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding!"

Both girls apparently had the same thought as each other as they both swung their hands at the boy's face and smacked him quite fully with their palms, leaving significant red marks on either side of his face.

Laughing erupted around as others made fun of his misfortune, Guiche however, was not going to simply take it, "You, commoner, I recognize you, you are the Zero's familiar, how dare you cause this misunderstanding between those two fair ladies, my noble pride will not stand, apologize for this situation on your knees!"

Staring at Guiche, Volt would have shrugged had it a slightly more human personality, or more control over its body. This was so beneath the Warframe it was almost humbling, perhaps it should apologize, this was clearly a unique world with unique social cues.

Just as it was about to kneel down and apologize Guiche's patience broke, "So you do not kneel? You do not even speak, are you mute? Did the Zero hire a mute cripple who could not even walk on his own?"

There he was again, speaking of a Zero, the implication was Zero equaled Louise, but for what end, it was clearly an insult judging by the negative connotations that were associated with it, if so what was to be done with this boy?

"Very well, you think you are exempt from the influence of a noble? I will show you your place! I challenge you to a duel!" Gasps rang out from the slowly accruing audience and rapidly the audience grew, drawn by the hubbub of the situation.

Volt thought briefly, this would actually be perfect, it would see how combat in this world works, see its own performance at 5% sync rate with Volt Cephalon independence and to resolve the insult to its Tenno.

Having come to its conclusion the Warframe nodded yet again eliciting gasps from the audience "Excellent, in the Vestri Courtyard in 30 minutes is where this will take place, you better not run commoner!"

As Guiche headed out Louise came running over angrily, "What are you doing? Guiche will destroy you, you're just a commoner, and you can't fight a noble!"

Somewhat confused about why a noble would always beat a commoner Volt tilted its head as if to convey its confusion.

Seeing the confusion on her familiars face she elaborated "Nobles have magic, it's what sets us apart, a commoner can't fight a noble, especially not in a duel, and you're risking yourself for nothing! Go apologize now and Guiche may end this charade!"

Perhaps if she was in full control things might be different but Louise was intentionally not connecting with the Warframe, so Volt was in charge, and the knowledge of honor kept it from accepting its Tenno's decision, it must, after all, demonstrate a Tenno's honor to its Tenno so that she might learn.

Lightly shaking its head it headed out to where it assumed Vestri Court was judging by where Guiche went previously. It must at least show its Tenno that a Warframe is useful before the Void corruption would force it to self-purge, leaving her alone.

Arriving at the large courtyard Volt proceeded to the crowd in the center and it parted to let the Warframe through, once inside the ring of humans Guiche presented himself, "I see you have not ran away, I commend you for your bravery, a pity I must squash it for the sake of the dignity of the ladies you have wronged!"

Setting up a combat stance that even a child could tell was faltering Volt readied to receive an attack once the duel began, "Very well commoner, you will be facing my Valkyries, Begin!"

As he spoke he held up a rose and several red petals fell off the stem and landed on the ground, causing inscribed circles to appear on the ground, curious, Volt scanned the circles and found their source to be Void Energy, these humans were like little Warframes! Though the energy was heavily filtered it seemed.

From the circles on the ground came several metal frames, they reminded Volt of the undercarriage of a Warframe, except without all the muscle cords, and coated entirely in bronze, perhaps this might be dangerous after all.

The Valkyries ran towards the Warframe and made a stabbing motion, Volt moved his feet to lunge to the side then bullet jump back into it but instead simply stumbled to the side and made a light lunge, more resembling falling, towards the front Valkyrie.

The speed was honestly pathetic, the lunge was even below human standards and Volt was appalled at its lack of power. When the attack landed it was initially overjoyed at the attack.

The punch tore into the golem, ripping through its armor like nothing, then its joy was immediately halted when it saw the golem was HOLLOW, the frame was just that, a frame, no substance, powered purely by that altered Void Energy Volt scanned earlier.

Then the Valkyrie landed its spear, if Volt had better understood the concept of human emotions he might have considered laughing at that moment, as it did not it found the idea incredulous that a weapon wielded by a Void Energy powered construct could be so pathetic.

Nevertheless the fact of the matter was that shields would only recharge when not damaged for a period of time, the opponent would merely need to keep up a light barrage and eventually the Warframe would take real damage.

Stepping back Guiche seemed shocked by what he saw, "How durable is that armor? To glance a direct blow from my Valkyries? It is a pity such illustrious armor is wasted on you, your movements are clearly amateur."

Louise also seems shocked as she arrived at the duel location and shoves her way through, 'Did that spear just hit him directly?' Being slightly shocked she ran to get a closer look and see if her familiar was okay.

Seeing Volt was fine she began attempting to de-escalate the situation, "Guiche stop this! You know duels are forbidden on campus grounds!"

After his initial shock at the armored man in front of him shrugging off the Valkyrie spear Guiche began summoning more Valkyries, before looking briefly at Louise, "Duels are forbidden between Nobles, and I see no Noble in this ring, only a commoner, there is no such rule."

"That is a technicality! You know the only reason the rule doesn't exist is because it hasn't happened before!" She yelled indignantly at the concentrating Guiche.

He summoned 3 more Valkyries, this time each had a sword and shield, evidently expecting some modicum of defense against the strong blows of Volt. "Familiar! If you surrender now I will accept your apology and think nothing more of the matter, you are clearly a strong individual, even if you movements are sluggish, perhaps due to that ridiculous armor, I am not without mercy!"

Having successfully pulled its arm out of the dead Valkyrie Volt clenched its fist and looked down at the spear of the now destroyed Valkyrie, reaching to pick it up.

Louise watched as her familiar touched the spear and felt that pain in her head again, the world spinning, she was in the head of… the Warframe but this time she wasn't in control, just a passenger, perhaps because Volt was there somewhere.

"Louise collapsed! Maybe watching her familiar fight and lose to Guiche was too much?" The students near Louise commented and sure enough, when the Warframe looked over at Louise she saw herself collapsed on the ground.

Even if she wasn't in control she could feel her senses sharpening again, the world becoming more bright and filled with colors while everything was slightly slowing down, that one was new.

Suddenly from the back of her head Louise heard Volt speaking, "Tenno, I do not know why you are here, but this is an excellent opportunity, for some reason this unit has returned to about 30 percent standard functionality of a unranked frame sync, let me show you some of this unit's capabilities.

As Volt said that the Warframe changed its stance around the spear it was now holding, "This unit, as every Warframe variant, is designed to be able to wield every possible or even most theoretical weaponry, technically, this unit could wield even the most unconventional instrument as an effective weapon should it need to, warriors of gun and blade, the Tenno used these things to great effect."

The spear settled along its arm, the haft slightly behind its back with the other arm held up in a defensive position, "Tenno, I will not be always around, my processes are… bleeding, in a manner and speaking, if you find another Warframe in the future I can resustain myself but in the meantime I am returning myself to my original purpose, Warframe Process Management, from here on out, it's going to be all you."

Feeling Volt recede Louise noticed the body of the Warframe felt even more like her own, but was still not under her control, the frame shifted moving rapidly toward the nearest Valkyrie, stabbing forward with the spear.

The screeching of metal on metal reverberated throughout the suddenly quiet crowd as the spear cut through the Valkyrie, bisecting the frame completely.

Guiche, realizing his Valkyries were underwhelming, shouted his bravado to the crowd, "Fine! I will no longer be going easy on you! This is the pinnacle of my current skill, 'Fleur Valkyrie'!"

Guiche dropped the remaining petals from his rose wand to the ground, the petals glowed lightly then a shattering sound broke the quiet surroundings before a bronze golem larger than the others with considerably greater armor plating.

The new golem pulled an equally large blade from the ground in front of it before slightly slouching behind its shield, the sight overall was somewhat impressive and made Louise quite jealous that Guiche, a student who did nothing but chase women and put no effort into his studies could reach such a level of skill.

"Behold, my magnum opus! The beautiful 'Fleur Valkyrie'!" cried out Guiche, clearly pleased with his creation and showing off as much as he can, even as he hunched over sweating and breathing deeply.

The Warframe, however, did not seem to see the threat and charged it directly with Louise still in the passenger seat, terrified out of her wits, her familiar was going to get her… it… them, killed!

As the large blade came crashing down at what was slow even by normal standards, Louise watched the blade inch by her, grazing the arm of the Warframe as it moved ever so slightly in its forward momentum.

The spear moved forward into the hand of the Golem, immediately disarming it as the spear tip acted as a blade and sheared off the hand from the wrist downward.

Guiche, clearly distressed from the sight began getting truly nervous, "Commoner, truly you are skilled how about we simply call this duel off, it serves to benefit no one after all, and you have clearly demonstrated your ability against a superior foe."

Taking a short hop back the Warframe settled in an elegant stance, the appearance of weakness at the beginning of the battle easily forgotten by the audience in the heat of the battle.

Lifting its left hand it pointed at the golem, almost as if declaring the golem was its target, and just as the golem had recovered and began moving forward a sound unlike anything Louise had ever heard crackled in the air around her.

Then Lightning came forth. The stream of electricity was different from the Lightning she knew, even the blue Lightning some users could create, this was red, deep red, were it not illuminating itself it would be almost the color of blood.

After only a moment, just long enough to truly register that it did happen the Lightning cut off though the effect did not, where the golem had been hit the characteristic crackling continued, unabated, swiftly melting down the joints of the bronze monstrosity, until only a pile of bronze components remained, falling apart from one another, lightly smoking.

Stepping forward again the Warframe began calmly walking toward Guiche, who finally completed his total turnaround in his offer.

"You are the greater duelist indeed, Sir, what was I thinking to challenge a mage knight in armor, but that is the folly of youth of course, best we be washing our hands of this whole affair?" The question fell on deaf ears.

The spearpoint swung out and the crowd gasped in barely constrained terror as Guiche's head… stayed on his shoulders. The blade rested against his neck before being retracted back, spun around to settle in behind the warrior and remained there.

For a moment Guiche had no idea what to do, until his opponent bowed, actually bowed. To him, the loser! Almost immediately he began regaining his ego, puffing his chest out and lifting his chin to speak a few words that would help recover his public image, then that spear flickered out again.

The spear smacked into his head, thankfully the flat of it, forcing his head down, resisting, he was afraid again the warrior was going to kill him in such an honor less way, before someone in the crowd yelled at him, "He wants you to bow, Guiche!"

Realizing his folly for not replicating the motion Guiche immediately bowed as well, the pressure of the spear relenting.

Standing back up the Warframe walked back over to where Louise was collapsed and picked her up, heading out to a different court with fewer individuals. The crowd continued to follow until finally the Warframe leapt onto the outer wall and out of sight.

 **It is quite enjoyable to do anything with Warframe, and I quite enjoyed the Familiar of Zero when I was younger, though finding the progression of the story was painful, a problem I will have to live with given the unfortunate nature of the continuation of the story, Rest in Peace Noboru...**

 **Anywho, there is chapter 2, the next one is actually partially completed but don't expect it out swiftly, I only just exited maximum stress life and am adjusting my schedule accordingly, hopefully writing fits snugly in there somewhere.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Updated! Louise starts a new playthrough but someone turned off the tutorial. And most of the HUD. And the Lotus. And Ordis. And took away the Orbiter and Liset. Hmm, apparently Ordis and Spacemom are kinda helpful. Oh well.**

Chapter 3: A New Life

Running along the top of the wall the Warframe stopped a distance from Louise's room and then leapt to the window, all the while causing Louise to scream mentally as she was effectively flung off a huge wall to her imminent demise.

After not feeling pain within a few seconds Louise opened her metaphorical eyes and noticed that she was clinging to the completely vertical surface next to the window.

Reaching for the window Volt opened it and lightly hopped in, closing the window behind it as it went. Slowly Louise set herself down on the bed, wondering if she was going to do that weird two bodies thing again.

Instead after setting her down it knelt next to the bed, resting its hand on her own, maintaining the tentative link as Louise felt herself waking up slowly.

The world returned to her perspective for most part but it was primarily due to the fact that it seemed the Warframe had closed its eyes. Looking at the Warframe she noticed that its eyes were wide open, so there went that theory.

'Wait, if I control this now and I control my own body, doesn't that just mean I have two bodies?' Suddenly thoughts began running rapidly through her head as to what the implications were.

"Lightning!" Louise suddenly shouted whilst leaping to her feet. Immediately regretting her decision due to the splitting headache which came from both her bodies she knelt down and held 'her' hand.

She did not fail to notice a moment later that the room lit up with a sound very similar to the one she had heard earlier, the implications of which made the headache little more than a side note, this was her chance!

Looking over at the… at her Warframe she let a small grin appear on her face, this was her way to show everyone who had ever doubted her that she was a great mage, she would become the… the what?

Pausing her rampant thoughts she realized something, she had only ever wanted magic because everyone else had it and it was expected of her, she had focused so heavily on this she didn't know what she had left, what did that mean for her future?

"I… I can't believe I let this consume me…" Pulling her hands to her face Louise felt a rush of overwhelming emotions as she began to wallow in her uselessness and delve into her failures further, normally she would have kept a sharp leash on these self-destructive thoughts but this revelation that had been brought about by her newfound power had pulled down those walls she had spent years carefully crafting in her mind.

"No… No! I am better… Sniff… Than this! I am a Valliere, there is only success to be had! I can be like my mother, she was a powerful mage knight and while I may not have a Manticore or any other such creature I do have my own source of strength!" Looking over to the strange being Louise shifted her body in her bed to lie with both her hands clasping the warm not-metal of the Warframes hands.

"My knight in shining armor… From now on I am my own knight in shining armor…" Closing her eyes Louise slowly drifted off, sleeping but still partially aware, the eyes of her protector eternally watching and waiting.

The morning was difficult for Louise, she had awoken as the Warframe and had some difficulty figuring out how to wake herself up without shaking herself, she figured she should be able to do it, though she had no basis for thinking that, she realized the uselessness of the endeavor after about ten minutes of trying.

This thought made her lightly push her shoulder until she began to also feel the irritation coming from her body at someone waking her up, creating an odd clash in her mind about not waking herself up before her mind realized this was a stupid problem and continued shaking her.

The world came to with a slightly lighter than normal headache and the twin perspectives she had come to expect from her… other body. Today was the first day she was truly useful and she was going to do something about it, there was the upcoming event that the Princess was to be attending but she felt confident enough in herself to not even bother practicing for that.

What she did feel like doing though was doing something her mother had done when she was younger, protect the people of the kingdom, though she didn't really have any knowledge of villages being attacked by goblins or the like she did know that highwaymen were a problem in certain areas, after all, a proper noble should be aware of these things due to the likelihood of an attack on a nicer carriage.

Classes hardly mattered to her, she had always been at the top of the class in almost every category but the practical use portion, therefore it hardly mattered if she missed a class or two and… wait, what if she left herself here?

By leaving herself she could say she was sick or sleeping in case someone came and Volt had basically told her that she didn't have to worry about range if she fully immersed herself into the Warframe, that should work perfectly.

Her plan immediately deemed foolproof Louise delved fully into the powerful body of her familiar and immediately she could feel the difference from co-piloting, being stuck or simply having no idea what was going on.

In her vision, yet somehow not obstructing any line of sight was a line that was about a third red and two thirds blue, it was quite difficult to focus on and she constantly found her attention moving away from it, it fading into the background, if that little line was important it would have been harder to miss and forget about, oh well.

Stepping towards her window Louise opened and peered around, contemplating the newfound ability to jump great distances. This newfound ability did not prevent her from extreme discomfort at the idea of leaping from her not first floor window.

After a few minutes of psyching herself up she leapt from the window with all the grace of a drunk dragon and promptly crashed into the ground unceremoniously. Opening her now metaphorically closed eyes Louise slowly noticed that she was not only uninjured but didn't even feel any discomfort at all.

Feeling ready to take on the world with her invincible body she quickly ran over to the nearest wall and found a noticeable problem, she had no idea how to jump all the way up to it, just that she could, given the earlier situation she had been a part of.

Standing next to the wall she began to remember what she had felt like when Volt had done it before, it was sort of like… pushing a muscle in her legs she didn't really have. As she tried to do so she found her legs in the air and her face planted into the ground.

"Oh, that worked too well, I just need to be facing the right way I suppose." Standing slowly she bent her legs like she had recalled Volt had done and then jumped and flexed the not-muscles at the same time and immediately felt her reward.

The wall rushed up to her and she realized that she had jumped all the way up to it but she hadn't actually landed on it, she was parallel to the wall, this was far higher of a drop than her room and she immediately began freaking out.

Desperate to not crash to the ground even if her logical mind would have told her she probably would have been fine she reached out to the not-muscles again and felt a sudden flare from not only her legs but from her back and sides as well.

The next thing she knew gravity lost its grip as she hopped forward off of nothing to land on the wall and her safety. Confused and amazed Louise turned around and observed the air she had just jumped from, there was no platform, no mages in sight which may have boosted her and no way she could have done that.

Feeling confused but still determined to find the specifics of her new body Louise jumped into the air and then flexed the… her air jump… jump magic would have to do, using her jump magic she immediately noticed that gravity lost all its pull for a moment and she defied it, going straight up into the air a short bit.

She could jump off nothing, it truly was magic! Immediately wondering on the practical application of a second jump she leapt off the wall to what would have been her normally impending doom, however at the last moment she jumped off the air and promptly landed on the ground as if she had only fallen a short distance instead of all the way from the top of the wall.

Turning and running into the forest Louise was further pleased when she found she could run very fast, not to mention she found out she could somehow make herself slide on the ground like it was ice, primarily due to an almost embarrassing event with a tree root.

The local villages had some very small roads, they were maintained, just not particularly well, an initial setup by removing trees or flattening the path and then occasionally putting bricks in where it was necessary, even a few bridges.

These roads did not, however, have anyone maintaining the shrubbery alongside them, this made for a very convenient amount of hiding places very close to these roadways, it was in one such hidden grotto a man named Grin hid.

He hadn't been named Grin by his parents all those years ago, no, he was mainly called that by those in his little raiding group because he had a real nasty scar from when an argument turned sour with an old acquaintance who had slashed open his cheek.

His name aside, Grin was not a happy man, many in his group could be argued towards this point but Grin specifically was unhappy due to the nature of tragedy in his background, he didn't like to bring it up much but he was married once, to a lovely woman whom he loved with all his heart.

Grin was also not very smart however, this would often lead to him daydreaming of his life once lived when he really should have been getting his little gang in gear due to an approaching wagon.

It was therefore rather embarrassing for all parties involved when Grin had his group run out of the woods behind the wagon, creating a brief chase with much yelling and anger from the chaser and the chased.

It was upon this scene that Louise stumbled, her attempts to find out why she was able to slide over almost any surface had been thwarted by her wondering what would happen if she used her jump magic while she was super slippery.

Louise got a great view of the chase from her position above them, perhaps the best place to start a wonderful rescue, had she not also found out she could only use her jump magic once per jump and was therefore simply falling.

She did, however, consider the nature of her ability to fight a group of several bandits and conclude she would be killed if she didn't do something beforehand, the element of surprise was, after all, a well recorded one, she had heard there were even breakthroughs in modern medicine due to this thought process.

The lightning which arced from her hand did more than enough to startle the group of bandits she had arrived to thwart though, despite her embarrassing entrance of falling in front of them, the fact that red lightning had left three people writhing on the ground made them more than wary to the newcomer's presence.

Stepping forward a man brandishing a short rusty blade spoke, "I don't know who you are but mages should be more careful when they're walking around wearing expensive equipment like that, how bout you leave the gear here and we leave you alone and alive?"

Lifting her head slightly to properly look down on the man Louise began delivering a proper denouncement of their sins, "You are violating the safety of the citizens of Tristain and I am not going to let you continue, turn yourselves in and I will consider mercy!"

The bandits continued looking at her for some time until finally the man in the front spoke up, "You just gonna stand there lookin all proud are you? Well, if you won't talk then we'll make this a wordless exchange!" A yellowed grin broke out on the faces of the various bandits who immediately continued their charge.

Louise was stunned, had they not heard her demand? Wait, come to think of it her improved hearing hadn't really heard anything, it was more like she heard the words inside her own head? But they sounded like she was talking, did she have two levels of talking to herself now?

Deciding she would figure this out later Louise began firing the lightning like her life depended on it, which it likely did, until after another six went down, she found she couldn't use anymore lightning, though every time she tried a little message popped up in the corner of her vision saying 'Need more Energy'.

Not knowing how to get more energy Louise promptly turned to run before the first brigand jumped on her, knocking her to the ground, she was going to die, this was how it was going to end, it was all over.

Curling up into a ball to make the attacks hurt less she realized something after a few moments, it didn't hurt. Looking up at the bandits she found them hitting her with their swords but they just kept bouncing off something that glinted just over her armor.

Trying to see what their weapons were being blocked by she found nothing there, yet whenever they hit her anywhere it would make a little spark, like a little bit of lightning was blocking the attack, so… they couldn't hurt her?

Almost laughing inside Louise slowly began trying to get up before finding that every time she tried she simply got tackled by a few of the bandits, she couldn't get away, but they also couldn't hurt her, this entire situation was more embarrassing than anything else.

Perhaps they would go away eventually? She could only hope, because she had no magic and she couldn't fight… but maybe she could, she remembered Volt could fight just fine with no weapon!

Throwing a straight punch Louise found that her idea was very correct, the man who had taken the punch was lying on the ground groaning and clutching his chest, this would do perfectly!

The bandits were quickly punched and kicked rather rapidly, resulting in a few more downed men and everyone backing away from what appeared to be a knight having a temper tantrum on the ground.

"What do we do boss, he ain't exactly letting us near him, and we can't get that armor off." A bandit spoke to the man holding the sword who had talked to her earlier, "Ugh, fine, boys, get some rope lets see how we well our little princess here likes getting towed around,"

Having heard that and very much not liking the implications Louise quickly got on her feet and decided a hasty retreat was perhaps in order, she had, after all, already rescued the wagon, they would be fine, she would come back another day to take care of these villains.

Immediately turning to the woods she had come from she decided the most unexpected exit would be required due to being surrounded and promptly… Arrow jumped? She was like an arrow shot from a bow, that worked, at an angle into the woods.

The bandits were very confused, what had attacked them, it was like a mage but looked kinda weird and shot itself through the air, Grin had seen mages who could fly before and that was not how that worked, well, back to the grotto, he had to consider this, and perhaps his old life, yes, Grin was a very skilled contemplator.


End file.
